Although China's top financial regulator has not directly banned producing or trading mining machines, it is likely that regulations may be tightened, considering that their rollercoaster price fluctuations may lead to asset bubbles and threaten financial stability, analysts said.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, sales in the retail and catering sectors reached 926 billion yuan, or around 150 billion U.S. dollars during the Chinese New Year, up over 10 percent from a year earlier.

Iran found the wreckage of the crashed Aseman Airlines ATR-72 plane on Monday and received condolences from Chinese, Russian and United Nations (UN) leaders for the victims of the incident and their families.

Federal authorities have said that a Delaware man stole late last year a thumb of a Chinese terracotta warrior statue being displayed at a Philadelphia museum. The statue is said to be worth of US$4.5 million.